Abortion and Nation

Situating the abortion question in the global context of human rights politics, as well as international social movements, Lisa Smyth analyses the formation and transformation of abortion politics in Ireland from the early 1980s to the present day. She considers whether or not the shifting connections between morality, rights and nationhood promise a new era of gender equality in the context of nation-state citizenship.

Dr Lisa Smyth is from the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Queen's University Belfast, UK.

Contents: Abortion politics, the Nation-State and globalization; Abortion and reproductive freedom; The politics of authenticity: nationality, gender and Irishness; National entrepreneurs: a moral panic emerges; Abortion, official nationhood and gendered citizenship; The X case and the familial 'Pro-Life' nation; The X case and the Republican Democratic Nation-State; Towards a Liberal Democratic political culture?; Conclusion: women in the Nation-State; Bibliography; Index.